What is the difference between simple and silly?
simple | silly |
Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
*
*:“[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”
*2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 167,
*:There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
Without ornamentation; plain.
Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
* (ca.1576-1634)
*:Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
*(Lord Byron) (1788-1824)
*:Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
*(Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)
*:To be simple is to be great.
Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
Trivial; insignificant.
*1485 , (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book X:
*:‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
Feeble-minded; foolish.
Structurally uncomplicated.
#(lb) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
#(lb) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
#(lb) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
#(lb) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
#:
#(lb) Homogenous.
(lb) Mere; not other than; being only.
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:A medicinewhose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.
(medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
*, II.37:
*:I know there are some simples , which in operation are moistening and some drying.
*Sir W. Temple
*:What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
(obsolete) A term for a physician, derived from the medicinal term above.
(logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
(obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
*Shakespeare
*:compounded of many simples
(weaving) A drawloom.
(weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
(Roman Catholic) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
(transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.
(label) Pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
* (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
(label) Simple, unsophisticated, ordinary; rustic, ignorant.
* 1633 , (John Donne), "Sapho to Philænis":
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
Foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom; frivolous, trifling.
Irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors.
Semiconscious, witless.
(label) Of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short.
Simple, not intelligent, unrefined.
* {{quote-book, year=1935, author=
, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1
, passage=“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke
(label) Happy; fortunate; blessed.
(label) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
* Robynson (More's Utopia)
(colloquial) A silly person; a fool.
(colloquial) A mistake.
In context|obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between simple and silly
is that simple is (obsolete) something not mixed or compounded while silly is (obsolete) harmless; innocent; inoffensive.As adjectives the difference between simple and silly
is that simple is uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added while silly is (archaic) pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.As nouns the difference between simple and silly
is that simple is (medicine) a preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant while silly is (colloquial) a silly person; a fool.As a verb simple
is (transitive|intransitive|archaic) to gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.simple
English
Adjective
(er)Synonyms
* (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold * (having few parts or features) plain * See alsoAntonyms
* (having few parts or features) complex, compound, complicated * (uncomplicated) subtleDerived terms
* fee simple * future simple * oversimple * past simple * plain and simple * present simple * pure and simple * simple beam * simple connectivity * simple contract * simple dislocation * simple equation * simple extension * simple eye * simple fraction * simple fracture * simple fruit * simple function * simple future * simple group * simple harmonic motion * simple-hearted * simple interest * simple leaf * simple linear regression * simple machine * simple mastectomy * simple microscope * simple-minded * simple past * simple pendulum * simple pistil * simple pole * simple present * simple protein * simple regression * simple sentence * Simple Simon * simple sugar * simple syrup * simple time * simple trust * simplehead * simpleness * simpless * simplex * simply * single * simplicity * simpletonNoun
(en noun)Verb
(simpl)Derived terms
* simpler * simplist * simplifyStatistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----silly
English
Adjective
(er)- A silly man, in simple weedes forworne, / And soild with dust of the long dried way; / His sandales were with toilesome trauell torne, / And face all tand with scorching sunny ray
- After long storms with which my silly bark was tossed sore.
- The silly buckets on the deck.
- For, if we justly call each silly man'' / A ''little island , What shall we call thee than?
- A fourth man, in a silly habit.
- All that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.
George Goodchild
- (Chaucer)
- The silly virgin strove him to withstand.
- A silly , innocent hare murdered of a dog.